


Hourglass Home

by AlleiraDayne



Series: Bang Your Head (Metal Health) [22]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Parents, Cute Kids, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Growing Old Together, M/M, Modern Era, Modern Thedas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-31 00:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6448327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlleiraDayne/pseuds/AlleiraDayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer Solstice barbecue with the Theirins and the Rutherfords.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hourglass Home

**Author's Note:**

> Cullistair Week. Today's theme is Growing Old. Not really all that old, but old enough to have a brood of college students.

“It doesn’t get much better than this.”

Cullen agreed with a silent nod as he took the bottle from Alistair’s outstretched hand. On the deck they lounged, laying back in their folding chairs as the sun set over Lake Calenhad. The placid waters reflected the glowing sky, oranges giving way to pink and purple as the sun set a steady pace, nearing the horizon. A breeze cooled them in the late June heat, summer just beginning.

“I should start cleaning up this mess,” he commented as he eyed the long table to his left. Plates and glasses and platters littered its surface, all in attendance abandoning it for the back yard below

Except for them.

Long, thick fingers slipped into his hand, and Cullen turned to find a warm smile on Alistair’s lips. His thumb rubbed the backs of his fingers, gooseflesh breaking out across the skin of his forearm. Decades later, and Alistair still set his heart to racing.

The desire, the _need_ to be closer, to feel his presence pressing in on his overwhelmed him. Cullen leaned in, lips meeting for a soft, but eager kiss. He felt an insistence in Alistair’s touch, a need that spoke beyond a simple display of affection, swipes of his tongue begging for more.

“Andraste’s _tits_ , Da, keep it in your pants.”

Alistair pulled back from him, lips parting all too soon. “Mind your own business, Connor. Like, by cleaning up that table? Be a good boy and help out your mom.”

“Kind of why I came back up here,” he insisted, setting down his drink. “Murph and Al will be up shortly, they’re finishing a match with the girls.”

Cullen watched the man as he gathered glasses and plates, and when Connor had gathered as many he could carry, he returned to the kitchen through the sliding door. Cullen turned to Alistair, curiosity getting the better of him.

“Connor and Murph are nearly done now, right?” he asked.

Alistair nodded, taking a sip from his beer. “Connor graduated this spring. Mechanical Engineering. And Murphy will finish a little later, in December. Computer Science.”

“How’s Al? We hardly hear from Aoife,” Cullen continued.

Alistair laugh, shaking his head. “I swear, somehow, Mal’s blood made it into that kid, even though Sia carried him. He’s half way into a Film Score degree. Give him another two years and he’ll be working for your wife.”

Cullen laughed in kind, knowing how odd Alistair’s youngest son was in a family of scientists and engineers. “And Sansa?”

“She starts this fall. Chemical Engineering. What about Kahlan? Sansa is dying to know if they’ll be seeing each other on campus.”

Cullen took another long pull from his beer. “She starts this fall as well. And she might as well be in school forever. She wants to be a surgeon. And you know Aoife is working on her Music Performance degree with Al. Do you think they’ll …”

His question cut off as the five of them tromped up the stairs to the deck, followed by just as many giant dogs, sounding like a heard of druffalo. 

“Where’s Connor?” Murphy asked.

“He’s being a _good son_ , cleaning up after you lot,” Alistair chided.

“We were nearly done with our game,” his son huffed. “We’ll get it all cleaned up, don’t worry,” he added as he headed for the table, followed by five Mabari all looking for scraps.

“Where’s Mom?” Cullen asked as Aoife walked by, brown curls bouncing and her arm around Al’s waist.

“Ah, her and Aunt Sia are in the garage next door,” she said with a laugh as she looked to Al. “They uncovered the car.”

“Yeah, Mom said something about going for a drive around the lake,” Kahlan added as she drifted by, long black waves fluttering in the wind.

A drive around the lake. That sounded like a great idea. Cullen stood and put his beer down on the small table beside him, then took Alistair by the hand and gave him a pull. “Let’s go.”

Alistair followed without a reply, following him across the deck and down the stairs. But before they reached the bottom, Alistair pulled them up short, stopping Cullen with a rough tug. He turned back as Alistair’s arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him close for another kiss.

This one put the other to shame, smoldering as tongues tasted and hands roamed. Thick fingers carded through his hair, blonde waves curled by the humidity. And Cullen reached back, hands dipping low to grasp Alistair’s firm backside.

Parted, Cullen breathed deep as he stared into the bright golden eyes of the man before him. Though some twenty-two years had passed since they had reunited, Cullen felt Alistair had not aged a day. Yes, his ginger hair was slowly turning white, and his eyes crinkled far more than they ever used to when he smiled, but those bright golden eyes hadn’t dulled one bit in all those years.

And Maker, the man still had a perfect ass.

“You two just going to make out on the stairs all night or are we going for a ride?”

Cullen looked over his shoulder to find Amallia leaning around the front of the house, long purple waves cascading over her shoulder. When he turned back to Alistair, he gestured down the stairs with a nod.

Across the yard they walked, entering the Rutherford garage to find the fastback uncovered as Aoife had said. And Amallia was rounding to the driver’s door, opening it and pulling the seat forward.

“You want me to sit back there?” Cullen asked.

“Climb in, I’m driving,” she replied.

On the opposite side of the car, Amodisia was already in the backseat. Her head popped out through the window as she said, “Unless Alistair feels like squeezing back there.”

“Shotgun!”

“Shotgun—fuck,” Cullen hissed as he shuffled to the driver’s door. “I didn’t install these damn seats for me, you know.” Once settled in the back, he turned to Amodisia and gave her a quick smile.

“Yes you did,” Amallia stated as she sat in the driver’s seat. “I asked you why, back when you were working on it. Do you remember what you said?”

Alistair sat down in the passenger seat and turned back to Cullen, waiting for him to reply. “Don’t keep us in suspense, man!”

Groaning, Cullen’s face reddened as he sighed, “Baby-making.”

Alistair’s roaring laughter was drowned out by the engine, turning over once before flaring to life. Amallia eased the car back out of the garage and onto the street and headed north, Alistair still howling with laughter.

Windows down and the radio blaring, they meandered up the lake, a slow stroll along the twists and turns of the lakeside road. People walking the beach waved as they passed, the car an icon, immediately recognized.

Within minutes, they arrived at their destination, a high, clear bluff that over looked the lake. Amallia shut off the motor and turned down the radio, then leaned back in the seat, feet dangling out of the window. Alistair reached for her hand, turning it over to drag his fingertips along her palm.

“Sun will be down soon,” Amodisia commented as she turned to Cullen, lifting her feet into his lap. “Would be nice to freeze it there for a few more minutes. The company is too good,” she said with a wink at Cullen.

“I fixed the wiring for the headlights. We’ve got some time,” he replied as he began rubbing her feet. “No rush.”

“Give the kids some time to themselves, too. I’m sure they’re already wanting to leave again,” Amallia drawled as she turned to Alistair. “Do you think Al will propose soon?”

Alistair shook his head as Amodisia barked a laugh. “No, they’re set on them finishing school and getting jobs first. But Aoife and he talk about each other as if it’s a given.”

“I suppose it was bound to happen,” Cullen admitted. “They all grew up together. I’m surprised Sansa and Kahlan haven’t fessed up yet.”

“What?” Alistair gasped, only to palm his forehead with a groan. “Maker, _how_? How did I not notice it?”

“It’s not as if they advertise their relationship,” Amodisia muttered.

“Right, but Sansa has been rattling on since graduated in the spring about how they’ll be roommates and that they’ll even have some classes together,” Alistair huffed. “I feel ridiculous. She even showed me a poem she wrote the other day. I thought it was about some boy she met. And now it’s damn obvious it was _not_.”

The three of them laughed, joined by Alistair after a moment of embarrassment. As the sounds of their mirth ebbed away, Amallia looked to the radio, grinning wide as she turned up the volume to listen.

 _You’ll know_  
Yes, you’ll know (you’ll know)  
When I give you everything  
Everything I am  
And we’ll go, we’ll go  
Together hand in hand  
Slipping through the hourglass home

_Together hand in hand  
Slipping through the hourglass home_


End file.
